More updating my systems malarky

As you know I updated my Office and Outlook to 2007, from the Microsoft site, ahead of the commercial release.

Very, very good products.

I have, however, recently noticed that my Palm Pilot T3 hasn't updated very well. Initially I didn't pay too much attention as I don't have much need of synchronising during the boring holiday season.

Anyway, today I had a closer look and realised that Palm doesn't sync with Outlook 2007!

OK, so I could buy Chapura's Pocket Mirror (a third party sync package), it costs $30. Or I could wait until Outlook 2007 is officially release in February and hope that Palm have updated their software by then.

Or I could buy a Microsoft Windows PDA.

I'm a little bit tempted. The latest Palm, the TX, doesn't have a vibrate option, something I find very useful.

Not having a good memory I need alerts during the day to go to meetings etc. I like the discrete vibration affect of my T3 (stop sniggering at the back, damnit!).

But my T3 is dying. The Bluetooth no longer works, the slider is now very sensitive and will power the machine off if I touch it and, final straw, the little Palm logo has fallen off the front of the machine.

That's it. I need a replacement. Preferably one that gives a nice trembling sensation in my pockets (look, I've already warned you, get that grin off your face).

Today's summary ...

is brought to you by the number "zero".

Aka "0".

Today I applied for 0 jobs and received 0 bites.

Naughty job advert of the day ...

... week, month ...


Saw this (extracted below) today whilst looking for a job in Munich:

" ...
Qualifications:
Post graduate (Advantage to: Computer science, Information system engineering, Business administration)
Minimum 2 years relevant work experience in the area of Business Applications project management; especially in consulting companies or IT-area. Further experience – Minimum 2 years as a senior consultant.
Place of residence DACH or UK
Age: between 30 and 40
Mobility - very high willingness to travel is necessary (4days not at home, almost every week), flexibility and capacity (no „9 to 5“ alignment)
Have knowledge of Business applications (SAP Business One is a strong nice).
MS Project
Microsoft Office
Knowledge of SQL is an advantage
Project management skills. Very good organisational skills, focussing priorities
People management skills; ability to manage and motivate employees
Business English language skills (speaking and writing). For DACH countries German is required (strong nice). Any additional language would be nice ..."


What's wrong? Well, they've put an age restriction. Bad, very bad. I'm pretty certain that's now outlawed in the EU.

It was advertised in Monster and I'm nevertheless thinking of applying. I may even point out the problem. Well, whatever I can do to help.

No need to read this entry

because I couldn't find anything to which I could apply.

Getting through

When I was in Munich many years ago I worked at a very large American company.

I now feel myself being drawn to another large American company.

Before I left Munich for the Xmas holidays I tied to contact a recruiter who works there. I'd seen his details on both Xing and linkedin. He'd even put his mobile number on one of the sites.

In previous weeks, however, there was no answer when I tried to call it.

On a whim I tried again today. He answered.

Good.

But I asked and he confirmed he was on holiday.

Drat.

I gave him no choice: I told him I'd call him when he is back at work (next week). And I have made a note in my calendar to do so.

Persistence

is closely related to futility.

Headhunters recommend looking during the festive season. You might catch a recruiter when no-one else is bothering.

I looked today for a suitable job in Munich.

There were none.

Not too surprising as Müncheners take their festive seasons very seriously.

Doubts

I always thought the company where I've been recently working is called Something Something Services.

Though sometimes I've heard my colleagues call it Something Something Solutions.

Daft, I thought. You really should know the name of the company for whom you work. Especially if you need to update your c.v. because they're making lots of cutbacks.

Last night in bed, it occurred to me that maybe they're right and I'm wrong.

Which means l've been sending out c.v.s with completely the wrong name of my last client.

Hardly shows attention to detail.

Anyway today I double checked.

No mistake - at least on my part. Phew.

At least I tried

Well, it's a working day so I looked.

Nothing.

Basically Bavaria is closed down for the week before Xmas until the week after New Year.

But just in case someone is recruiting I need to maintain some vigilance.

2007

So, I'm using OneNote 2007 and I want to use its task feature as an input into my Outlook. But that doesn't work as my Outlook version is too old.

I find that Outlook 2007 isn't purchasable yet. Then I find that Microsoft allows you to download it before it becomes commercially available.

Great. That's what I do.

Then I find that although most of Office 2007 is installed Outlook stays the same.

Not great.

I eventually check out Microsoft's discussion forums.

In one of them it reveals that you need to first un-install Outlook.

They could have mentioned that in the download instructions.

Anyway, tomorrow I must re-start job hunting. If I find anything suitable in Munich then I'll send an email from my shiny new Outlook 2007.

Networking for introverts

Although I can be quite assertive, I'm not always an extrovert. This, found on Lifehacker, may be relevant.

Some useful tips

As I currently have nothing better to do, I've been googling for other job hunting bloggers.

So far most of the results have been for people on the recruiting side. Of these Guerrilla job hunting is probably a good place to start. The blogger is the author of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters, a book I'm re-reading. This blog also has a comprehensive blogroll to other recruitment-side blogs .

On the hunting-side I've only found one snippet. It's from an American librarian's blog but includes some useful, general advice.

Sluts

... that is, connections sluts or rather promiscuous connectors as I guess these LinkedIn users would prefer to be called.

I'm finding that they don't add value for me. Shally Steckerl of SixDegreesFromDave thinks differently.

InterviewTrue

Couldn't think of a better title. Anyway this service allows you to answer a variety of interview questions whilst in front of a web cam. lt then plays back the video of you. Sounds good but also sounds expensive but isn't. It's about $20 for six months. That's about the price of a very good take-away meal of sushi in Munich.

I intend to give it ago.

(spotted this in the downloadsquad)

OneNote

There's quite a few things I intend to do when I return to Munich: learn German, renew my PRINCE 2 certification, get a job.

But I think I should also get familiar with OneNote 2007.

A couple of years ago I used the earlier version. I've downloaded the new product as a trial because it isn't available to purchase yet. I'm just hoping it is properly released before this trial pack times out in February.

This is something I can do straightaway. One reason I want to use One Note is because of the unrestricive space it gives. I'm hoping this will help my creative thinking when drawing up tasks etc.

Chartered

I'm a chartered engineer, IT professional and a couple of other things.

On my last day at work I gave my business card to one of my (German) colleagues.

On it is written "Chartered IT Professional".

She thought that was funny. But surely Germans rave about letters and titles?

But she read "chartered" as in a "chartered flight".

Hmm.

I am going to buy new business cards. Not sure now whether to leave that in.

More gadgets

Yesterday, on the train from London, I was using my C -Pen to help me read the SZ I had picked up on the airplane.

(You don't know? It's like a fat pen with an LCD. But it's a scanner. Scan in a German word and the LCD will show the English equivalent from its onboard dictionary.)

Two people sitting near me took a great interest.

The conversation moved on to other gadgets: my TabletPC, my Palm, voice recognition software and Digimemo.

l had ordered the new, A4-sized, Digimemo whilst I was in Germany but had it delivered to the Uk.

Today I set it up. Works fine.

Ok, so why did I buy a TabletPC and a Digimemo?

Well, several reasons:

• TPCs are convenient when I'm lounging around and can't be bothered (read arsed to use a keyboard. I'm handwriting this entry on the TPC).
• Sometime it's much better to use a PC in slate mode, eg. when sitting in an airport.
• Digimemos, on the otherhand, are pretty discrete. Very few people even realise that it's more than a normal notepad.
• For most notes I will probably never look at them again. I certainly don't need handwriting recognition software to transcribe them into computer text. But the act of writing down the information is the important thing; it impinges the information in the mind. So all l need is a backup just in case I ever do need to refer to them again.
• TPCs may just become the next big thing so having experience in this area is not a bad idea (for me).

Michael Hyatt's excellent Working Smart blog also has a good criticism of TPCs.

Unfortunately I guess he wasn't working smartly enough as he feels he can no longer continue updating that blog.
.

Left

... Munich, that is.

I left the company on Friday.

The last few days there's been major delays at London Heathrow due to the severe fog.

Today it eased up.

When I arrived at Munich airport I was even offered the chance to take an earlier flight. Which, of course, I did.

And that flight arrived early.

But the saving in time was eaten away by:

• waiting 15 minutes for the bus to arrive to take us to the terminal
• waiting over 20 minutes for the train driver once I got to a mainline train station in London

... welcome to England.

Although I've left Munich it's only for a couple of weeks. Then I return and job hunt (and blog) full time.

Before that, however, I will be adding some delayed entries on this site.

0.001

On Friday I leave the company.

Today my group head mentioned that they really needed to keep me on. But they can't. She's going to ask again. So there's a 0.001% chance, she reckons, that they'll be able to keep me on past December.

A bit later she asked if I know anything about release management.

Well, I created a team doing that at a London investment bank plus I hold the ITIL qualification which covers that best practice.

We'll know soon.

Running - a new approach to job hunting

...by which I mean walking with the Munich Hash House Harriers.

During last weekend's run (walk) a fellow hasher mentioned a possible job in his company.

He was good enough to send my email address to the guy recruiting. We exchanged emails but the job required expertise in SAP - a technology I can barely spell.

Street walking - a new approach to job hunting

I live in one of the swankier areas of Munich although it's not my favourite part of the city.

A weekend or so ago I was walking back to my flat and round the corner I noticed a company's nameplate. It had a rather unusual, quirky name.

I went home and checked out their web site. Of course it was written in German. Not too much of a problem and I liked what I read. Eventually. They had a straight-forward approach to project management and I like to think I do too.

I found the owner on Xing and tonight sent him a message. Basically it asked if he had any advice or contacts he could recommend to a project manager (me) looking for a new assignment in the city.

Of course, I didn't mention but if his company was looking for a PM then they should consider me.

I'll see what happens.

Mixed approach

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things (i.e. job hunting things).

When I get home I check out certain job sites on the web.

And I've been collecting Saturday's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper for the last few months.

I haven't looked at them till now. This evening I seperated the job pages from the rest which went straight into bin (for recycling .... this is Germany).

I'm now going through these job pages looking for companies who might be worth approaching. They may not be recruiting in my skills area, or even in my language (you're reading it now) but there may be a mutual interest.

I then look in openBC (now called Xing) and LinkedIn and see if there's anyone I know who's connected to these companies. Next step is to send them a message.

I'm going to see how this develops.

What am I going to do?

Can't really be optimistic all the time.

My contract is coming to an end. Well, it's probably better that it ends now rather than in March.

This way maybe I won't miss out on German companies' recruiting surge as a lot of them will be getting new budgets in the new year.

But then there's that bitch called Reality.

Reality tells me, actually reminds me, that it's difficult, rather difficult (and that's "rather" spelt with a capital F) to get another job. At least in my case, for some reason.

Now multiply that with the fact that I'm not fluent in German.

Well I like a challenge.

So, what am I going to do?

Assuming I don't get a job immediately then I'm going to keep on applying (obviously).

I'm also going to take one-to-one lessons in German, starting in the New Year. I reckon that this could really help. I already understand a lot of German and can get by, even sometimes at work.

At the same time I'm going to study and requalify for my PRINCE 2 certification. That's really important. I already have the handbook and exam samples for it ... currently keeping dust off a shelf.

Then I might just take the PMP exam in project management. I feel that's a bit overkill as I'm already an APMP but some recruiters are a bit picky.

At the same time, I might add more to my Rumours of Life site.

But I won't just be sitting on my arse all day. It really is time I went back to the gym.

Then there's Vista which will come out soon. I already have a new laptop waiting for it (I'm writing this on it) and it will be good to learn the new system (I guess).

What else? Oh yes, update this blog.

With all this activity planned for the new year it might be better that I don't get a job.

Another day at work

Last week I applied for a job in Düsseldorf.

Today I called the agency. Eventually l worked out that the position no longer existed.

"Eventually" because this was all done in German.

„Leider".

Suspension over

Well on Thursday I went ahead and purchased the Fujitsu Siemens tablet.

Then, after work, I had same beers and a curry.

On Friday I played with it for a while. Then remembered it was a Friday so went out.

On Saturday I looked at it in more detail. Being a tablet it has handwriting and voice recognition.

Today I transferred most (all, I hope) of my old laptop's files and applications . This took rather a while .

At the moment im using the handwriting programme to write this blog.

lt's a bit tortuous so, l'm not going to write anymore tonight.

Dilemma update

OK, so I've ordered the Digmemo pad (used for keeping a record as you write).

But it's just not enough.

I desperately need a new laptop. And I've set my heart on a Tablet PC.

I was thinking of getting the Toshiba Tecra M7 or the Asus R1F. But something's been holding me back.

The place where I work is a large complex and has shops for its employees. When I visited their computer shop a month ago they had tablets but not Vista Premium compatable ones.

Today, I had the urge to go in. This time they had the latest Tablet PCs including the Fujitsu Siemens T4215.

I've checked the spec and it looks just right. I've also looked at tablet forums on the web and no-one seems to have a bad word about it.

Being me I'll sleep on it but tomorrow I feel a purchase coming on.

There's actually genuine urgency with this now. This evening I removed a USB memory stick from my old laptop. I must have moved the power lead because the laptop switched to its battery.

It took quiet a few anxious minutes to get the thing powered from the mains again.

So no more pfaffing around I need a new laptop, fast.

Just the one

I'm getting the feeling that this time they're not kidding at work. Which means I won't have a job when I return from my two-week Xmas break.

Have to get the bloody ball rolling.

Today I saw a job on a site of a German recruitment agency. The advertisement was in German but I could read it fine. I applied in English.

I also added its details to my old MS Access database. First time I've used that in a while.

It's kinda gloomy to think that I could well be doing more and more of this type of activity: searching job site, applying, updating my application database.

For the record

Today I applied for one job. Just now actually (it's near 11pm).

The job was advertised in German but I applied in English because German is my third language.

Either they'll nevertheless be interested or they won't.

By the way I don't have a second langauge, it's just that my skills in German aren't that good yet.

Another month

Well, in case you were wondering, my job has been extended to the end of December.

This is good. Initially I was contracted month-by-month until the end of September. They then said they'd extend me by one month only.

At the end of October they extended me by two months. That was the longest contract renewal I've had.

The project finishes at the end of February.

So, they've now confirmed that my (and others) contract will finish in December. This time they're 99% sure.

OK, that's the life of a freelancer. But what to do now? I know, create Rumours of Life which will contain a choice of my writings.